Sumit Kumar

@DiMeN_DTP PhD student @UoDLifeSciences

[Mushtaq Bilal, PhD @MushtaqBilalPhD]

The growing inaccessibility of science that you can understand by paying €27.99

[Sumit Kumar @sumitkumar7884]

@EmmanuelMacron Why don't you say that to Donald Trump?

[Bo Wang @BoWang87]

Harvard scientists just shattered one of biology’s oldest rules.

We were taught:
Viruses can’t make their own proteins. They hijack yours. That’s why they’re “not alive.”

Except giant DNA viruses just crossed that line.

Researchers found they carry a full eukaryotic-style translation complex (vIF4F). Translation machinery.
Inside a virus. They can keep making proteins even under stress that shuts down normal viral replication.

If a virus brings its own protein-making tools…
Is it still just a parasite?
For decades we’ve drawn a clean boundary:
Cell = alive
Virus = not alive

Nature doesn’t care about our categories.
Maybe viruses aren’t just evolutionary side notes.
Maybe they helped build complex life.

Paper in Cell 👇
https://t.co/QyGzZf9e6o

Harvard news: https://t.co/YKAfEngdS3

[Andrew Akbashev @Andrew_Akbashev]

11 papers retracted from a PhD student.

Surprising?

Not really.

Just check the recent news:

1. The rector of a Spanish university ran a citation-inflation scheme. He was one of Spain’s most-cited academics. Springer Nature retracted 75 papers linked to him in 2024.

2. Another highly-cited chemist in Spain was suspended for 13 years by his university in 2023. In June 2025, at least 11 of his papers were retracted for fraudulent practices.

3. A German anesthesiologist has had 184 retractions. He was once one of the leading international figures in perioperative medicine Just wow.

4. A French mega-cited scientist, a director of IHU Méditerranée Infection, had 6 retractions for ethics violations and 50 articles marked by PLOS. He retired after that.

5. A Japan scientist in anesthesiology had > 170 fabricated papers. His career ended.

6. A Harvard professor had her tenure revoked and was fired in May 2025 after an internal misconduct finding.

7. The STANFORD PRESIDENT resigned after data manipulation was found in several highly cited papers. Two Science papers were retracted.

8. A tenured professor from the University of Minnesota resigned in March 2025 after the retraction of a highly cited Nature paper in June 2024 due to manipulated images.

9. A very high-profile professor from Cornell resigned after two dozen retractions.

📍 What’s going on? Very simple.

Make metrics the aim, and science disappears.

Many scientists pursue careers instead of science.

They focus on awards, number of papers, citations…

Their labs turn into production factories - factories of low-quality research and low-quality graduates.

❗️Remember:

Your career should be a by-product of science.

Not the opposite.

[Cell Host & Microbe @cellhostmicrobe]

Promoter variation in Streptococcus:
S. pneumoniae promoters contain repetitive nucleotides, driving strand slippage & promoter mutations. This drives population-level heterogeneity in gene expression, offering evolutionary strategy to maximize fitness
https://t.co/qdojFlpogn

[Sumit Kumar @sumitkumar7884]

Exciting study from the Dan Neill lab @UoDLifeSciences in @cellhostmicrobe. We explored how promoter diversity in natural isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae drives infection outcomes.

https://t.co/8bEqsZJWep

[Despoina Mavridou @bondSSbond]

You want to run antibiotic MICs according to best-practice clinical microbiology protocols, but you are not sure how? Our article will walk you through it all! Great to work with @nikikaderabkova @AyeshaMahmood2 and a pleasure to publish in @npjAMR. https://t.co/pvp6svqiRl #AMR

[Sumit Kumar @sumitkumar7884]

@SigmaAldrich Sigma oligo evaluator

[Ben Rosher @BenRosher]

UK doctoral training programmes now expect PhD researchers to submit within 3 years *and* spend 3 months of that on a placement.

UKHE needs to touch a lot of grass.

[Igor Ulitsky @IgorUlitsky]

A 1,000,000th reminder the crucial importance of basic research. Ambros and Ruvkun were looking into understanding nematode genetics and development, not looking for a drug, and ended up opening an entire new area in biology

[DiMeN DTP @DiMeN_DTP]

Amazing opportunity for DiMeN students to learn about industrial jobs and startups from various experts throughout the day at The Guildhall, York.

[Omid V. Ebrahimi @OmidVEbrahimi]

Today, I finally got the visa I applied for nearly 3 years ago to attend a conference in North America.

Unfortunately, the conference took place 2 years ago.

@AcademicChatter

[University of Dundee @dundeeuni]

A team from @uodMedicine has completed Scotland's first ultrasound thalamotomy - a non-invasive operation that will allow people suffering from uncontrolled tremors due to Parkinson's disease to control their movements.

For patients like Ian Keir, this is life-changing.
👇

[Martin Smith @martinrsmith]

🚨New analysis from @royalsociety

UK visa costs for researchers:

🫣 21x higher than France (Talent passport for researchers)
😱34x higher than Germany (Scientific visa)
😬Have increased by 126% since 2019 while other countries have made theirs cheaper

https://t.co/WAr312t6Zd

[Niko McCarty. @NikoMcCarty]

Good stuff. Sequencing proteins by reverse translating them back into DNA, and then sequencing that.

[Akos T. Kovacs @EvolvedBiofilm]

Secondary messenger signalling influences Pseudomonas aeruginosa adaptation to sinus and lung environments

@ISMEJournal by @DRuhluel et al from @MicrobeAdapt

https://t.co/wAKyMcBpGg

[Arun Bothra 🇮🇳 @arunbothra]

Last stage of cancer is often very painful, both for the patient and the family. The best one can do is to reduce the pain and provide quality life in those last few weeks or months.

Bagchi Karunashraya Palliative Care Centre, Bhubaneswar has started its in-patient services earlier this week. Focus is on providing compassionate care for advanced cancer patients, End of Life, and Respite Care needs.

In case you know any patient who needs such care please do connect them. The service is free.

Please RT

[bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv_micrbio]

Predicting microbial growth conditions from amino acid composition https://t.co/QgRh6Qceh7 #biorxiv_micrbio